17 July 2022

COVID-19: A Moral Issue

  • Background and Rationale
  • Hypotheses
  • Methods/Measures
  • Results
  • Conclusion

COVID-19: A Moral Issue

COVID-19: A Moral Issue

COVID-19: A Moral Issue

COVID-19: A Moral Issue

COVID-19: A Moral Issue

COVID-19: A Moral Issue

COVID-19: A Moral Issue

COVID-19: A Moral Issue

COVID-19: A Moral Issue

COVID-19: A Moral Issue

COVID-19: A Moral Issue

COVID-19: A Moral Issue

Moral Conflict

Moral Conflict

Moral Conflict

Moral Conflict

Moral Conflict

Data

Moral Identity

  • A measure of how much people view “being a moral person” as an important aspect of their self-concept
  • Internalization: importance of moral characteristics to the self
  • Symbolization: importance of being seen by others as moral



(Aquino & Reed, 2002)

Moral Identity and COVID-19

(Pavlović et al., 2022)

Moral Identity & Political Ideology

  • Moral identity can interact with Political ideology in predicting behaviour (Winterich, Mittal, & Aquino, 2015)

  • Greater Internalization predicts less generous donations to charities that do not align with own moral foundations

  • Political Ideology and different moral foundations (Graham, Haidt, & Nosek, 2009)

    • Loyalty/Tradition/Authority/Free-Market Principles/Freedom of the Individual

  • Political Ideology and Moral Circle (Waytz, Iyer, Young, Haidt, & Graham, 2019)

  • Motivations to adhere to COVID-19 measures may conflict with other moral values (e.g., autonomy and freedom) that are more strongly held by conservatives than liberals.

Moral Identity, Political Ideology & Context

Moral Identity, Political Ideology & Context

Moral Identity, Political Ideology & Context

Moral Identity, Political Ideology & Context

Hypotheses

Hypotheses

Hypotheses

Hypotheses

Participants

Full Dataset

  • Data were collected from 46,450 participants in 67 countries (22,160 females, 23,948 males, age M = 43.09, SD = 16.22)

Our Sample

  • Sub-sample of New Zealand and the USA samples (N = 1980)

  • New Zealand: n = 509 (255 females, 255 males 1 other; age: M = 45.78, SD = 17.63)

  • USA: n = 1,471 (710 females, 755 males 6 other; age: M = 44.32, SD = 16.43)

Outcome Measures

  • Restrictions support: (5 items) e.g., In favor of closing all bars and restaurants
  • Distancing Adherence: (5 items) e.g., Keeping physical distance from all other people outside my home
  • Hygiene adherence: (5 items) e.g., Washing my hands immediately after returning home

Slider scale, ranging 0 = strongly disagree - 100 strongly agree

Predictors

  • Moral Identity: 10-item Moral Identity Scale (0 = strongly disagree to 10 = strongly agree)

    • Internalization: (5 items) Being someone who has these characteristics is an important part of who I am
    • Symbolization: (5 items) I am actively involved in activities that communicate to others that I have these characteristics

  • Political Ideology: (1 item): Overall, how would you describe yourself in terms of political ideology? (0 = Extremely liberal/left leaning to 10 = Extremely conservative/very right leaning)

  • Country/Polarization: USA (high polarization) and New Zealand (low polarization)

Covariates

  • Moral circle
  • COVID-19 Risk perception
  • Individual narcissism (6 item Brief NARQ, Back et al., 2013)
  • Collective narcissism (3 items, Golec de Zavala, Cichocka, Eidelson, & Jayawickreme, 2009)
  • Conspiracy beliefs (4 items)
  • National identification (2 items, postmes_singleitem_2013; Leach et al., 2008)

Results Overview

Results Overview

Results Overview

Results Overview

Results Overview

Results: Internalization

Results: Internalization

Results: Internalization

Results: Symbolization

Results: Symbolization

Results: Symbolization

Results Overview

Conclusions

  • Mixed support for hypotheses
  • Moral Identity Matters
    • Differences between Internalization and Symbolization
  • Complex relationship between moral identity, political ideology and national context (polarization)
    • Political ideology more important in polarized contexts (but this is less straight forward than predicted)

Thank You for Listening

References

Aquino, K., & Reed, A. (2002). The Self-Importance of Moral Identity. Journal of Personality and Social Psychology, 83(6), 1423–1440. https://doi.org/10.1037/0022-3514.83.6.1423

Back, M. D., Küfner, A. C. P., Dufner, M., Gerlach, T. M., Rauthmann, J. F., & Denissen, J. J. A. (2013). Narcissistic admiration and rivalry: Disentangling the bright and dark sides of narcissism. Journal of Personality and Social Psychology, 105(6), 1013–1037. https://doi.org/10.1037/a0034431

Golec de Zavala, A., Cichocka, A., Eidelson, R., & Jayawickreme, N. (2009). Collective narcissism and its social consequences. Journal of Personality and Social Psychology, 97(6), 1074–1096.

Graham, J., Haidt, J., & Nosek, B. A. (2009). Liberals and Conservatives Rely on Different Sets of Moral Foundations. Journal of Personality and Social Psychology, 96(5), 1029–1046. https://doi.org/10.1037/a0015141

Leach, C. W., van Zomeren, M., Zebel, S., Vliek, M. L. W., Pennekamp, S. F., Doosje, B., … Spears, R. (2008). Group-level self-definition and self-investment: A hierarchical (multicomponent) model of in-group identification. Journal of Personality and Social Psychology, 95(1), 144–165. https://doi.org/10.1037/0022-3514.95.1.144

Pavlović, T., Azevedo, F., De, K., Riaño-Moreno, J. C., Maglić, M., Gkinopoulos, T., … Van Bavel, J. J. (2022). Predicting attitudinal and behavioral responses to COVID-19 pandemic using machine learning. PNAS Nexus, pgac093. https://doi.org/10.1093/pnasnexus/pgac093

Waytz, A., Iyer, R., Young, L., Haidt, J., & Graham, J. (2019). Ideological differences in the expanse of the moral circle. Nature Communications, 10(1), 1–12. https://doi.org/10.1038/s41467-019-12227-0

Winterich, K. P., Mittal, V., & Aquino, K. (2015). Moral and political identity. In The Cambridge handbook of consumer psychology (pp. 589–618). New York, NY, US: Cambridge University Press. https://doi.org/10.1017/CBO9781107706552.022